Anonymous Scholarship Recipient
I would like to express my appreciation to Flash Foxy for their invitation to attend this year’s meet as a scholarship recipient. You do an incredible job of organising such a full program and what must be extremely complicated logistically. You have my admiration as someone that organises smaller scale events and knows some of the unseen labour that goes into them!
My intentions going into FF2025 were:
Be gentle with myself knowing that I was already very tired from the world in general, and from doing my own organising work. It felt really helpful to attend a festival as a participant rather than representing my group, and having a soft landing was very necessary! Would T-Climbing come back as a facilitating group? Most definitely! But so many useful lessons were learned by watching how the weekend unfolded and I think we would be so much better equipt to do facilitate competently having attended once without doing so.
To meet other organisers, but also navigate those interactions gently! We are all often overwhelmed by the amount of interaction we have at festivals or meetups and maybe the long term connections we make are also nurtured in the long term, rather than forged in the intensity of single meetings. That said, I did get to meet a number of internet connections IRL for the first time which was really beautiful. Folks from Climbers for Palestine, the Flash Foxy organisers themselves, friends from Wall Dolls, and NorCal folks from Lagartiajs.
To climb outside with people who make me feel good when climbing, and excited about climbing. An example of connections made through climbing - two years ago I met a number of amazing trans folks from Canada at the Radical Climbing Festival in New Hampshire, and we have stayed in touch and climbed around the world together since! We all have a background in running community climbs and potentially in being outsiders/outspoken in the climbing space. I was lucky that my time in Bishop could be with these friends, and that FF was a wholesome and thoughtful structure to move around in. On the first day, they took some climbers thrifting, and I was able to make them some food to keep their energy up. Friday afternoon we joined many other groups at the Happies and bouldered in falling snow! It was wonderful to see that Climbers for Palestine’s meetup became a focus point, as did Wall Dolls. Saturday we went to the River Gorge and attempted to climb alongside Nom Nom and Climbers for Palestine. I learned that it’s not necessarily easy to navigate these crags as big groups and that the approach can be a little intense for some folks. As I had hoped, on both days, the climbing was joyful and mutually super supportive and considerate. It feels nourishing and generative to know that there are people with whom you can rely on for positive climbing experiences. And whose crag ethos hopefully inspires others too!
To learn about the local Indigenous communities and understand the stewardship of the land better. This was one intention that I was not successful in. But that I have in mind to make a key part of my next visit. It was a clear and valuable part of the programming, and for that the host and local community have my appreciation!
Thank you to Flash Foxy for putting together such a full and varied weekend of clinics, climbs, and communities. It’s such a mammoth task and I hope I echo other participants in saying that the work and energy you put into the festival is something we’re all super grateful for.
